The Basset Hound’s name was Ginger. He used to have a Basset Hound named Ginger.

“It can’t be her,” Carpentier said. “It’s been so long.”

It had been a decade, actually. Ten years ago, he had given Ginger to his wife when they divorced, and that was the last he had seen of the dog.

What he didn’t know was that his wife, some time later, gave Ginger to the Humane Society for Greater Nashua. And the shelter adopted the dog out to a nice older couple. And when the nice older couple couldn’t care for the dog anymore, the owner returned Ginger to the shelter.

And there Ginger remained, for three months, waiting for his former owner, the one who had raised him, to get his “feeling” and to come find her.

He did. The listing didn’t contain a photo, just a description, so Carpentier emailed the shelter for photos.n“When I saw the picture, because I had the other [puppy] pictures, I said, ‘That’s her. That’s her,” Carpentier said.

He sent some of those puppy pictures to the shelter, and they, too, believed it was a match.

“They were all sitting in the office comparing [the photos]. It was kind of fun; I could hear everyone talking in the background,” he said. “I was a little hesitant. What do you do? I said, ‘No more dogs.’”

No more dogs? He knew he had blown that dictum the moment he had seen the pictures. Carpentier sat down with his family and told them he was taking a drive.

“She heard my voice. I walked up to her and she kind of gave me a couple of licks or kisses. And I was like, ‘She knows who I am, she remembers my voice,’” he said.

“She went over to him,” said Noelle Schuyler, event and outreach coordinator for the Humane Society. “She had never gave us kisses. When she started licking his face, that was that moment you could tell she knew.”